Karimoku, the old established japanese furniture manufacurer, has teamed up with the young design studio ISOLATION UNIT/ TERUHIRO YANAGIHARA to launch a collection of products, that represents a new approach to furniture design in Japan.

Above: Stools by Teruhiro Yanagihara

Young international talents, such as Scholten&Baijings (Netherlands) Sylvain Willenz (Belgium) and Big-Game (Switzerland/Belgium) where invited to link their design talent with the woodworking tradition and know-how of Karimoku to create furniture, that is thoroughly contemporary and strictly sustainable: With the aim to promote the maintenance and conservation of forests and in the long term increase biodiversity, wood gained from the thinning of japanese forests, a common waste product of forestry, was used for all products.

Above: Nook by Teruhuro Yanagihara

KARIMOKU

Kariya Mokusai took its first steps as a woodworking shop in 1940 in Kariya in the suburbs of Nagoya. By 1972 Karimoku had grown into Japan’s No. 1 wooden furniture maker in terms of domestic sales. The Karimoku Brand is highly regarded among consumers in Japan to the extent that ‘Karimoku’ has become synonymous with comfort, quality and reliability: True to the credo of, ‘If using a 100-year old tree, create furniture worthy of its age’

Above: Signs by Big-Game

ISOLATIONUNIT/ TERUHIRO YANAGIHARA

Teruhiro Yanagihara was born in 1976 in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. In 1999, he established ISOLATION UNIT/ in Osaka. Since then, he has been working in the fields of space design and product development and art direction for national and international clients.